Why is so many aspies wind up in mental wards?

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The foods not too bad at the Toowong Private Hospital. Valium on demand isn't that bad either....

FYI and all that.

I think that's probably because it's Psych therapy instead of actual information about our brains. In order to give therapy, they'd have to actually understand us at an organic level and I don't see that as the case at all. I see it as the exact opposite.

I wasn't bullied, teased, etc. because I had five brothers who would have beat the tar out of the would be bullies and teasers. That also wasn't very tolerated where I grew up. Frankly, the school system needs to start demanding children treat each other with respect and bullies and teasers need to go seek therapy or get kicked out. That goes for all the reasons they do it. It won't be tolerated at work so it shouldn't be tolerated at school.

I also do not agree with even encouraging children to pretend to be different to please people or get along. If you are secure in yourself as you are, people treat you with respect and value you. Pretense just indicates you aren't right as you are. That just starts the whole feeling of self worth to go right down the drain.

Now, if someone logical approached in a logical manner, that would different. Their brains work like this, therefore if you explain it like this to them they will be more likely to understand - is fine. But I still wouldn't leave explaining a brain to a shrink, even in that sense.

I think a huge issue that happens with us is in not giving us logical explanations and instead blabbing at us about feelings and broad, expansive scenarios that offer no concrete information whatsoever. That just confuses the matter even more and causes even more stress.

Last edited by ZanneMarie on 04 Apr 2007, 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The culture is so much different these days, ZanneMarie. You wouldn't believe what is going on in the schools. The social groups are mind-boggling. Straight-edgers, emos, geeks, freaks, jocks, preps hip-hoppers, gangtas, and who knows how many other groups. If you don't have a group, you become prey for the predators. Often the predators have psychological issues themsleves and they may be protected under the same laws that protect aspies. ADHD bullies are not uncommon.

I think your upbringing is atypical and I don't know how your POV would work in today's school culture.

Since I was intellectural, I assumed the role of intellectually aloof as a survival mechanism. I was excluded, but not harrassed. It was a different time though and these days, being intellectual is not considered a positive thing by one's peers. One and two-children families are the norm these days and there are no big brothers to look after you. Kids get attacked on a daily basis at school.

I think distance education is the answer for many young aspies. The kind of social interacation they receive at school isn't helping them. Even when parents try to protect them from negative cultural influences, they still are exposed to them by osmosis from their peers.

Can "counseling" help this?

I went through the same abuse when I went voluntarily into the psychward back when I was 15. But I found out really fast that people in the real world respect me. Then I didn't beleive in that for a long time afterwards.

Its interesting though because someone who I saw just once who was in place of the other psychiatrist admitt that their abuse was their job. Actually this was like the second time I went voluntarily.

She was the only honest person there.

But maybe I deserved that honesty and they gave it to me because I learned that other people think so highly of me. We are all in the same water I suppose but there is a big difference between normal people and people that don't make any sense when they talk - they are the ones who are selfish and judgmental of things around them i.e in an irrational sense.

I, for example, can prove that I can think and act very rationally. I don't tell little stories about me, my personal life, or a diagnoses because I control myself. I can have an actual conversation and am aware or want to be aware of other peoples feelings and intentions etc...

We end up in mental wards for depression. I did, when I became suicidal--two weeks, total, over two hospitalizations. I don't know how people cope if they're in there any longer--if you aren't crazy going in, you will be soon enough. Of course, the self-injury thing probably clinched it for them--if I hadn't been hurting myself to control my emotions, they probably would've just said, "Take two Prozac and call me in the morning".

I learned that being in a mental ward
a.) sucks, because you get treated like a child
b.) is really boring
c.) is annoying because you can't get privacy
d.) means you get given tranquilizers if you cry.

If you can stay out of it, do it. It doesn't help much--only keeps you from hurting yourself (most of the time). Not that it's really totally safe; because you can outsmart the "professionals" pretty easily. For example, I had promised not to hurt myself while I was in the hospital (made that promise to a friend); but the nurses insisted on watching me 24/7. In defiance, I started collecting objects with which I could've hurt myself... by the end of the week, I had 13 such objects and could have had more if I'd kept collecting, for example, plastic spoons. (The plastic was hard enough to crack into sharp objects.)

Anyway, the most important thing to remember if you ever get put into a mental ward is that the nurses and whatnot are there to serve you--not to control you, even though that's what they try to do. That means, keep your own mind. Don't believe them if you don't want to. Insist on explanations. Refuse meds, if you have to (but pick your battles, because they WILL drug you up on Haldol given half a chance). Remember they think you're a child, even if you're an adult; they probably think it's OK to trick you.

Best way to get out is to cooperate, pretend you're happy, pretend you're "glad to be there", don't cry, and don't stay in your room--stay in the day room (because they think that if you're in your room you're "withdrawing"). Don't do that for more than a week or two, though, because if you do, it'll go to your head and you'll start believing their crap.

By the way, I eventually stopped hurting myself, and the depression is in remission... I got a kick-start from the meds; but mostly I got over things thanks to my determination to help myself.

Basically: If you want to get out of the hospital, cooperate. If you want to get better, take control of your own recovery.

Last edited by Callista on 04 Apr 2007, 12:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I think the biggest difference is the schools. They don't want to do any work to educate because they underfunded and understaffed. They want to drug any problems so they don't have to listen to them and they don't enforce any rules because of whiner laws that get them sued. I do know where I grew up that it is so isolated it's still the same. It's basically a place where they don't want outsiders, they take care of their own and even if you are different, you are still one of them. The only new people who have ever moved in there are the Amish and that should tell you something about them right there. They get along with the Amish because they have a similar isolationist mindset. That has its good and bad points. It worked out well for me.


Having said that, we used to have friends with a son originally misdiagnosed as ADHD, then diagnosed as HFA. Now I would say yes he was Aspie because his IQ was too high to be true HFA (if that designation is actually worth anything). But his parents did the correct and wise thing when he started experiencing problems with teachers (he wasn't even being overly teased yet that they were aware of). They pulled him out of there and put him into a private school where the teachers did sort of what they did with me. They gave him a more customized learning path and he excelled. When my neice started going through similar things with my nephew, she did the same thing, bless her heart, even though she was a single mom and only 21. He's also doing very well.

I talked to a woman I worked with who is already afraid to put her daughter into mainstream education because of all this drugging and behavior modification. She's worried because her baby is different, but bright and happy. She doesn't want her ruined. She's already deciding how they can swing it so she can be home schooled.


So yes, I would agree, that some kind of distance schooling is the best solution for AS/AU kids. No, I don't think counseling can help that unless the counselor just straight up tells the parents they need to do it for their kid's sanity. I could just imagine the parents screaming then.

But given all that, I will tell you what's disturbing to me. These schools have been in the clutches of Pyschologists and "Education professionals" for years and this is where we are. Kids are terrorized in schools and drugged if they complain or they are different. That is a disgusting state of affairs and these soc-called professionals were in charge of getting it there. That's why I have no respect for them. They've done nothing to fix it, they've made it worse. They've succeeded in making the kids believe they are responsible for this mess. They've made it so parents have to turn to private schools, home schooling or drugging just to get their kids an education. I can't have respect for people like that. But, outside of that, I also don't think they are the right group to be trying to determine how a brain organically works. That is the true insanity to me.


We also had groups, and I kind of floated between the artsy kids and the geeks. That's where I would see most Aspies fitting in. I see way too much of parents and even the kids themselves pressuring themselves to fit into different groups. Is that not what you see?

I see a very confusing, harsh environment where kids associate with groups in order to avoid being bullied and beaten up. In our location, it is very difficult to get your kids into private schools that aren't religious-based. The good private schools have many more applicants than they can accept. They also are avoidant of any kids with "behavior" problems.

Many aspie kids get involved in with the emo/goth group. Negative thoughts are reinforced in that gorup. Wearing all black and cutting oneself seems to be popular.

The groups are highly derisive of each other and openly hostile. I don't think most parents see what is going on. The teachers/principals blame the parents, the parents blame the schools, but the culture is spread like a virus at school and no matter how a parent tries, she can't insulate the kid from the negative culture of school.

I agree that schools have been under the influence of educational psychology and are so busy teaching acceptance, that real acceptance has become a paradoy. Kids are beaten up and filmed, the films are posted on the Net. They write the most loathsome and hateful things about each other on myspace.com (a total waste of bits), and the chances of running into a sociopath that will really mess with an aspie's mind are very great.

The concept of a "guidance" counselor is a joke. The special education staff are so concerned about their jobs, that they natter on incessantly about their "caseloads."

Schools are fubar. We need to move on to something that works.

I would suggest reading Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons.

I was put in there when I was nine because the bullying I was receving in public school was making me violent and my mom did not know how to say no and let my brother's girlfriend, her three children, my grandmother and my grandfather move in with us. My other brother (not the one who had the girl friend living with us) was on leave from the Navy at the time too so that equled at total of seven extra people!

My grandmother would expect my mother to wait on her hand and foot and if us kids did anything such as breathe she would try to tattle on us. She would also make up stories about us and say we did things to her when we weren't even in the house and she actualy believed them. We knew something was up with her when she called up to warn us of the UFO she saw hovering above my dad's workshop. It turns out she is phycotic (she has a dx of it).

I needed to go to a phyc hospital after being in the phyc hospital. The nurses were basisicaly jerks. My mom says they had everyright to be because I was probably so "rude" and fought with them all the time I was scared okay. I guess if a tiger tried to eat my mother she wouldn't try to fight it off she'd just let it eat her. One even called me a "baby" to my face because I was having trouble adjusting. I was nine at the time but I was always like three, maybe four years behind emotionaly. So I was like a five year old.

The secound time when I was sixteen, it was just a circus. The phycologust they hooked me up with was supposed to be an "Asperger's expert". He did not ask me a damed thing about how I feel around people, obsessions, or anthing. I to be an AS expert you just have to say, "So you have Asperger's? What's that like?" He just had his intern work with me. He asked me how I see things. I told him I can see things regualr people don't (such as certian details) and hear things they donj't (such as the buzzing of electric) and he said I was skitsofrenic. Even after I was released I had vivid nightmares for months that I was still there.

The majority of the kids there were just deliquients and were in for drug rehab. They said there was an Autistic person there but he was super low functing and had the reasning level of a three year old.

it must be amusing to bullies, possibly a link to be popular, but they are the ones who really have issues. who could explain to children why people do those things? even as an adult, i had a supervisor express to me alienation was my problem (i did not initiate this, he approached me) because i don't do the socialization thing at work with co-workers; you know, i went to work to actually work and nobody ever complained about my job production...so i guess i wasn't being a team player in the tattle-tell area sometimes...i feel 'they' need to be in the mental ward.

I agree Mariah. Thankfully my work doesn't lend itself to that mentality. The few times I've ended up with aberrant bosses who thought people should socialize, they didn't last because the Technology groups had no tolerance for it. I mean we're all geeks and none of us are social. (Works for me!) Sometimes I run across a very extroverted person in Technology and I find they don't last either. They are very unhappy around the rest of us.

Kalaharimeerkat, unfortunately you experienced something similar to what my uncle went through way back in the 1930's. He had a speech impediment and kids picked on him so he beat them up. His own father had him locked up in a mental ward. He didn't get out and it ruined his life. He ended up like the inmates around him. After that happened, I had some cousins with the same speech impediment who had speech therapy and it fixed the problem. The true insanity is what is done to the person put in there sometimes. Like them saying you were Schizophrenic over sensory issues. I swear these people could get their qualifications from a cracker jack box.

Seriousgirl, my friend and my neice did have to go the religious private school route, but they didn't seem to push the religion. I guess they wanted tuition. It's sad to think that was still much better than the public schools. The whole situation has just gotten crazy and out of hand. It's almost like any sane and rational parent would be pulling their hair out trying to help their AS/AU child get a good education without being terrorized. Unfortunately, I think trying to explain that to an Aspie kid would probably get you an incredulous look and the question, "Why do I need to change if they are doing something wrong?" I mean think about that. Is there any way to rationally explain that to a child? It just makes the insanity of it even more clear. What a mess.

When I was there, I was forced to go to stupid group therapy. They said I wouldn't have to when I was first admitted. And they just talked about stupid things like movies. One girl mintioned how she volentered at a place and when I mintioned that I was going to try and volenter somewhre simaliar they basialy told me to shut up.

I loved being in a mental ward! I wish I could have stayed there.

Yeah, I hear you….

In retrospect: it’s the only place I’ve been that I felt like I belonged to.

While I was getting diagnosed, a psychologist told me had I ended up in the public system (which is particularly crap in this town), the way my particular AS manifests itself I would probably have ended up diagnosed with some sort of psychosis. Scary...

For the first time I felt comfortable. And the food wasn't bad.

I've never been to a mental ward,and I'm rather curious about it.


-SpaceCase